Storage and backup applications are among the most critical in any major corporation. Because missing or corrupted backups tend to show up only when someone needs to use them to recover from some data disaster, there's not much room for error. Lost data equals lost revenue and possibly legal liability, if the lost data are relevant to the financial performance of the company.

Corporate backup and storage apps are serious, expensive and rigorously tested both before release and after installation.

What we have here is a list of the most effective free storage and backup utilities, which are designed more to help you recover data that's important to you, not necessarily your employer, after the "harmless" x-ray machine at airport security turns out not to be, or you become one of the hundreds of pitiable fools who drop or lose or jostle a laptop at the wrong time or do one of a dozen other easy things that could turn your precious data into so much magnetic residue.

Any IT department worth its salt, needless to say, will have a backup solution available so you won't lose data from your work machine in any of those circumstances. You might even have spec'd or paid for it. You might even know how slow and embarrassing it would be to have to wait in line behind Bob from sales, who still doesn't realize it's not a good idea to tuck a stack of magnetic promo cards in the case with his laptop, or to clean off the keyboard with a damp sponge and doesn't understand why the help desk treats him like an idiot.

Being able to fix these things yourself is so much more convenient – especially if it means you don't have to stop making fun of Bob while the support techs you hired pull copies of your Personal and My Music folders off the VTL.